Bios to allow overclocking with i7 920 released

primetimex,

So does Dell i7 CPU's actually prevent / limit overclocking in some way?
* Not that I know of. My point was to only rely on Dell specifications, never the retail specifications because they will differ. Below are the Dell overclocking set points. Those are what we support. What is interesting is that we do not overclock the i7 960. My guess is that you could do it.

Aurora/Aurora ALX/Area 51
i7 920 base 2.66GHz, overclocked by Dell to 3.20GHz
i7 960 base 3.20GHz
i7 975 Extreme base 3.33GHz, overclocked by Dell to 3.60GHz

Area 51 ALX
i7 960 base 3.20GHz
i7 975 Extreme base 3.33GHz, overclocked by Dell to 3.73GHz or 3.86GHz

Why not just sell the machine at its 3.2Ghz? In 2 seconds even the most amateur person can go into the BIOS and select that profile and hit enter

You can't do this because Dell / AW NEEDS trained engineers to actually do some  R & D and 24/7 burn in to "ensure" that the 3.2Ghz is indeed stable and a Dell / AW sanctioned overclock.

So, once you take into account the R & D time and burn in time etc - it does actually make sense to charge people $200 for the overclock :) (despite stating clearly on the website that the BIOS is "unlocked" for overclocking - or is this just for "show" to make gaming noobz feel good??)

That was actually a selling point that I considered in my decision to purchase it. Now they want to recant that statement and say it was never intended to mean we could push the system.

I'm with Dave on what he has said. i purchased the AW-51 with the intention of getting a powerful PC with an unsurpassed case design to match. While the Alienware case is certainly well designed - the bit about overclocking is perhaps can be bit misleading.

The statement that the AW has an unlocked BIOS for overclocking certainly drew me in to purchase the system, otherwise I'd probably think twice about buying the system even with the excellent case design in mind.

It seems again that there is a lesson well learnt here - if you want full control over your PC - build it yourself, the case design, acoustics etc may not be even up to what Dell / AW can do but you certainly can tweak the last Mhz out of your system and you are responsible and have full knowledge of the system.

With the AW I was a bit disappointed to see that while Dell has improved a lot with AW it is certainly far from what was expected.

A BIOS that seems to be limited (given by my own experience and others here) in overclocking non-Extreme processors despite being advertised as able to be overclocked.

So it is disappointing to buy a flagship gaming system when you can't even overclock a 920 without a BIOS upgrade. I do at least expect to achieve a 3.5Ghz overclock as compared to self built PC - after all, is that not the point of spending thousands of dollars more for Alienware?

That being said I'm happy with my AW now - certainly I am most fortunate in not experiencing lengthy delays in procuring the system like many others in this forum and things are working well.

ChrisM, any idea on why we can not adjust the Uncore Frequency on the AW-51 BIOS?

Another thing that upsets me is that Alienware charges $200 to overclock it to 3.2Ghz. Yet the new BIOS update making overclocking as simple as pushing a button. Why not just sell the machine at its 3.2Ghz? In 2 seconds even the most amateur person can go into the BIOS and select that profile and hit enter. You know darn well you shouldn't even charge $20 let alone $200 for that. You are really scamming people that actually pay money not knowing there's a preset profile.

I absolutely find the case stunning and the speed is beyond belief. So it's not that I'm disappointed in my purchase. I just feel the experience could be enhanced to make Alienware the absolute most respected company on the planet. Will I make another purchase through Alienware? I really don't know.

Any chance that our 435T/9000 i7-920 rigs can be upgraded Bios wise?
* To unlock it like the Alienware, no.

Are you the same Chris that was there when we were uprading our XPSV350/R400 and higher systems to 1 and 1.2 gig years ago?
* Yep. Still here.

Thanks for reply Chris,

9000s fast enough for now with just Video card upgrades.

Just have to go black market upgrades a couple years from now, as we did on our old machines.

Later

Somehow I just don't see that people are running those machines through 24/7 testing. Has there ever been an instance of a 920 not being able to handle 3.2Ghz? It's such a crazy safe speed I still say it can be mass produced. Yea you might have that 1 in a 1000 machine that for whatever reason acts up, but heck even they're regular machines act up at a higher ratio.

I find it interested that  you'd use that statement to rationalize them charging $200. After all most high performance companies do that with EVERY machine standard ;)

If it weren't for their machine designs I swear they wouldn't able to sell even one!

I find it interested that  you'd use that statement to rationalize them charging $200.

Hey David - note the :) at the end of my statement!

Uh...so is it going to benefit me to have my memory at 8x over 10x? It's at 3.2 ghz, I know there are technicalities and balances out there that I dont know of, which would be better? thanks

You guys are all correct on this.  I ordered an m17x in september, was delayed so i canceled.  Ordered an Aurora ALX afterwards, was delayed many times, but i accepted the shipment, but I couldn't even overclock it so i returned it. This was back in November. 

In November when the new BIOS was not even out, you couldn't even overclock your i920 at ALL, not even to 3.0.     I returned it and built my own supersystem, and boy am I glad I did.  I spent about 3700(paid 4400 for the ALX) and was able to get top of the line EVERYTHING, and when i say top of the line i mean top of the line:

i920 overclocked to 3.8 stable at 1.25v

6 GB of Corsair Dominator GT RAM 2000 mhz with included fan

1200 Watt Antec Continuous Power Supply SLI/Crossfire Ready

EVGA E-762 Classifed 4 way SLI Motherboard

Prolimatech CPU cooler

Thermaltake Armor Plus Full Tower Case

OCZ Vertex Turbo 60gb Solid State Drive for Os/Apps

Pioneer 8x Blu Ray RW

2 TB Samsung Spinpoints for Data

2 ATI Radeon 5970's in Crossfire

Whoever said building your own system to get maximum overclocking ability was correct.  Yea you may not have the fancy alieware lights and the cool looking case, but who cares.  I agree with you guys.  Dell is falsely advertising Unlocked BIOS for overclocking.  The Dell sales rep told me the BIOS was unlocked, as did every other peice of marketing material.  I was blatantly lied to and misled.  The unlocked BIOS is what made me purchase the Aurora.   If I had known upgrading and overclockign was severely limited, I would of originally just built my own system. 

If you guys want some entertainment, you can look at the famous forum thread "Overclocking the Auroras."  It was a very good thread that was posted late october and addresses all of these issues and more more more.

All in all, Dell needs to make money, and balance things out.  You will never be able to overclock past 3.2 on the i920 unless you change the motherboard.  Many people have already swapped motherboards in the Aurora and Area 51 and have had no problems overclocking to 4.0, but why go through that.  We should just be able to do it with any Alienware system, not buy the system only to replace parts soon after.   

And yes, paying 200 dollars to overclock the i920 is just a way for Dell to make money and is seriously ridiculous.  They get "professionals" to overclock your system to 3.2, when in actuality my 11 yr old brother overclocked his system from 2.66 to 3.8 and his system has been stable for 8 months no problems. Dell makes it hard for you to get a system with everything you want.  The ALX's from both the Aurora and Area 51 have Solid State Drives as an option(might have changed... again) and the non ALX versions do not.  The ALX's give you better RAM options too among other things. 

Also, you cannot get the Ati Radeon 5970's in any Auroras.  Only in the Area-51.  Do not buy the i975. EVER.  I just want you guys and anyone else who is considering buying an i7.  There is only ONE i7. Listen to me now, and listen well.  All the i7's, the 920, 940, 960, 965 extreme and 975 extreme are the SAME. Same silicon, and the same chip.  The extreme editions have an unlocked multiplier, that's it.  Do not fall for Intel or anyone else's marketing ploys.   The i975 extreme is 1000 dollars, and the i920 is 288 dollars.  Buy the i920 and overclock it to 3.2.  You just saved yourself 700 dollars.  You can buy an ATI Radeon 5970 with that money.

However, if you are not an overclocker and you are paranoid, buy the i975 extreme.  The i975 extreme is for people who are afraid to overclock and just want a "fast" cpu without having to touch the BIOS. 

Hope this helped.

Thank me later.

Yea I got the sarcasm primetimex! I find it interesting all the other companies spent tons of time testing each machine and offering free overclocking. Not only is it free but at the minimum they'll put the system to 3.4.

As for your post Itachi731, that $200 is even more crazy because the BIOS has that profile now. You're not changing voltage or any other settings. There's literally a selection that says "Load OC 1". It restarts and you're at 3.2. Not even the fundemental basics of overclocking needed. As for building it yourself, sorry but that arguement is not worth even mentioning anymore. Obviously you can build better, more reliable machines at a fraction of the cost...it's a given. However some enjoy the ease of purchasing a machine, and in Alienwares case, the very uniqueness of the design. In addition, like my case, I had a Dell line of credit which offered 0% interest for 12 months.

Honestly I think DigitalStorm has some of the best options around. They offer overclocking to 4Ghz for a minimal cost, you can customize everything with virtually endless options, they test every machine very thoroughly, great customer service, quality parts, and very reasonable prices. So why didn't I get that? Well it was the combination of factors mentioned above.

As for your post Itachi731, that $200 is even more crazy because the BIOS has that profile now. You're not changing voltage or any other settings.

There MUST be something that they've altered - because I've tried the EXACT same settings prior to BIOS upgrade and it did not work! MAGIC

Dave, how did you get the Dell line of credit free of interest?

Also what is this DigitalStorm - I've never heard of it here Downunder ...

itachi731 - thank you for your post and the link - it was very enlightening, now I need to lie down ............ got that sinking feeling ......... :(

This article should pretty much sum up Intels shady business practices, even making my comment on how all the Intel i7's are the same chip more valid. 

Again- DO NOT BUY THE INTEL i975 over the i920.  The i975 is basically an overclocked i920.  Please open your eyes people.  Don't make the same mistake like I did.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/16/technology/ftc_intel/index.htm